龍舒增廣淨土文 3.6

3.6

During a person's life, parents, wife and children, houses and lands, cattle, sheep, carts and horses, down to tables, stools, utensils, garments, belts and cords—whether great or small, whether passed down from ancestors, acquired through one's own labor, or accumulated for one by children, grandchildren, or others—every single thing is taken as one's own property. Even if window paper is trivial, if someone tears it one still feels anger; even if a needle is trivial, if someone takes it away one still feels stinginess. When granaries and storehouses are full, the mind is still not satisfied; when gold and silk are abundant, enterprise still does not cease: everywhere one looks and with every step one takes, there is nothing but grasping attachment. Staying a single night away from home, one already worries about the household; when a servant has not returned, one already frets over their loss: every kind of affair occupies the mind. Once the great limit arrives, all of it is cast away. Even this body of mine is an abandoned thing, how much more so what is external to the body? Reflecting on it with a calm mind, it is just like a dream. Therefore Zhuangzi said: 'Only after there is a great awakening does one know that this is a great dream.' An ancient said: 'One day when impermanence arrives, one finally knows one was a person in a dream. Ten thousand things cannot be taken along; only karma accompanies the body.' How wonderful are these words! I therefore took the latter two lines and added two lines to make a verse: / Ten thousand things cannot be taken along; / Only karma accompanies the body. / Simply be mindful of Amitābha, / And you will surely be born in Sukhāvatī. / 'Karma' refers to good karma and evil karma; these are what can be taken along. How could one not take the Pure Land as one's karma? Elder Liaoming once preached to the assembly, pointing to this body and saying: 'This is a dead thing; that which is lively and spirited within it is the living thing. Do not make plans upon the dead thing; you ought to make plans upon the living thing.' I deeply love these words, and so I often speak them to others. All those who greedily seek various external things to sustain their bodies are making plans upon the dead thing. Although people of the world cannot yet avoid this, amidst managing their livelihoods and sustaining their bodies they ought to spare a moment's leisure to turn the light inward and reflect upon themselves, so as to set their minds on the Pure Land; this is to make plans upon the living thing. Moreover, even if one busily pursues a livelihood and attains wealth like Shi Chong or nobility at the very pinnacle of the first rank, there is ultimately an allotted end to it. How could it compare to the Pure Land's endlessness?